"The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection." -Thomas Paine

December 19th, 2009

Dearest and most beloved friends,

My kindest thanks and appreciation to all you glorious people who have paid attention to my news letters all year and been so supportive of my artwork and my efforts to inject them into the consciousness of the world,  I don't know how to express my gratefulness for your kindness and your friendship.

Six months ago, I wrote my last entry in this, my Diacron. Since then, my life has been a whirlwind of work, gallery exhibitions, and extreame poverty. I feel I have reached the end of my rope financially and I can no longer afford do what I have been doing all year pro bono. I have to make a hard decision. One of the most difficult I have ever known. That being said, I have come to a crossroads yet again with this pursuit of living by and through my expressions with ink on paper.  When I moved here 2 years ago, I brought with me a collection of goals, some modest and some perhaps were too heavy.  I have achieved many of them; I have been a part of an exhibition of some kind every month since I moved to the city, my art is represented by a gallery downtown in the largest art district in the Chicago, I have created some new pieces (not enough, though), I still work in the gallery field both as a prepator and as a gallery director, and I started making high quality prints of my work this earlier this year. 

All these things are on my list of goals for the two year plan, the master plan.  But alas, the most important goal on the list has not been achieved, quite the opposite actually.  I have not come close to making any semblance of a living up here with my work.  Maybe its the economy, maybe its the drawings not being palatable to everyday art buyers, maybe its me and my lack of organization and responsibility to things other than my art.  I know not, what I do know is that I cannot afford to continue.  In the coming year I plan on entering a new line of work and a new life without my art as a primary goal, I now have to recover from these past two years financial horror.  Maybe down the road, things will change, new opportunities will arise, maybe something different will happen. 

I don't know what else to do, all I know is that I can no longer afford to do what I have been doing, I am broken.  I have to compromise now in order to live, and you my brethren who know me well, know how much this infuriates me. I owe too many far too much. Repaying these debts is now my primary goal. I may be out of the galleries for a while and just stick to the studio to create some new ideas, large scale, insane imagery. Maybe I just need time alone in the studio without worrying about the people seeing them. Maybe I am not cut out for this as a living since I will not give in to the commercial "Bullshitism" of the contemporary art scene. I know one thing; I am compelled to draw, so I will. I don't know how to excel at anything else.


L'arte pour l'arte

Jamieson Michael Flynn

Define irony. I was sent an article recently that did just that. If you did not hear, the USCCB (The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) recently publicly condemned the practice of the far-eastern spiritual/medical practice of Reiki. Reiki is a CAM (complimentary alternative medicine) and form of healing, usually with a combination of meditation, life energy work, and massage therapy philosophies and practices. One could consider it a spiritually founded system of living and healing, if you will.

The church voices its own empty warnings; "There is a radical difference between Reiki therapy and the healing by divine power in which Christians believe: for Christians the access to divine healing is by prayer to Christ as Lord and Savior, while the essence of Reiki is not a prayer but a technique," the bishops said in a statement. "To use Reiki is to operate in the realm of superstition, the no-man's-land that is neither faith nor science," the bishops warned, urging Catholic healthcare institutions, retreats and chaplains to ditch the therapy, which originated in Japan in the 1800s.

So, to sum up the clergy's argument to the best of my abilities is as follows: To believe in the spirituality and tangible participation of life that Reiki aims to achieve is dangerous, unhealthy "superstition". And to believe in the son of a sky god, born of a virgin human, with the ability to walk on water, raise the dead, heal the blind, etc. is the "truth". I'll spare you a story involving pots and kettles.

The Catholic Church cannot cease casting degradation upon any system of thought that differs from their own, and this will be the proponent of their downfall. From an evolutionary, natural selection based principal; a social institution that cannot adapt and that refuses to evolve socially, relative to the rate of human growth and intellectual expansion, will ultimately not survive. It is where all the other mythologies went. All of them. Their explanations became useless, the rituals became obsolete. Many of the practices in hind sight are regarded as madness and horror. The balance of power throughout the life of the world razed many mythologies to the ground, then built new ones in their places.

If the church would at least concede that a person can attain whatever glory one believes healthy in ones own way, how galvanizing it would be. Maybe give in to the possibility that there may not be one way to salvation, but many ways. Try to give in to it, to not be the absolute authority over all existence past, present, and future. Admit the possibility of many forms of human salvation, and enlightenment. Would it be so bad? I wonder if all your faithful followers would forgive you for changing the so-called word of god into something more peaceful and uniting. If they are true believers, wouldn't they have to? What do you have to lose besides further sowing divisiveness with the ranks of humanity. As I have stated in the past, religion is a personal enterprise. It is as individual and unique as the followers themselves. Once organized, it ceases to retain the true intention of all belief systems, oneness and enlightenment.

Define enlightenment. I'll leave that one for you my darling readers, because all your answers can be different and they can still all be right.

March 17th, 2009

Hello my dearest friends and readers. I trust that you will enjoy this St. Patrick's Day celebration and be as safe as you can. Here in Chicago, St. Patricks Day is quite the event. It really is an extended holiday starting with the Saturday beforehand with the downtown parade and the dying of the Chicago river to Kerry Green, and ending with the actual St. Patricks "Day". Throughout the weekend there are parades, festivals, and multiple pub crawls and the like all over the city. One amazing experience, and for your beloved writer, it was like no St. Patricks Day before.

As I mentioned above, the celebration up here begins on the Saturday prior to St. Patricks. On that day, for the first time (officially) I worked the door of a bar, checking ID's, tossing out drunks and paying general attention to the establishment. I performed this function at my local pub, Galway Bay (the best bar in Chicago) on Sat night and without having a drop of alcohol. The 14 hour shift provided me with an oppurtunity I had not forseen. A very interesting social experiment ensued as I watched hundreds of people come in and out of the bar.

Some people arrived sober as a pope , and left in a stupor. Some would arrive in great moods, and leave with the most sullen expressions, as if someone just kicked their dog in the teeth, or vise versa. Some would show up in high spirits and leave in the same fashion, happy and smiling. I would watch and talk to these people all day and night. Usually, I would be one of the patrons drinking whilst at the bar so I would not notice the subtle and not so subtle changes in people. Their facial expressions, their movements and personas. It was quite interesting to be the "Observer" for the entire day and night. It gave me a tangible, reflective experience; How often do I change in such a manner? What do I look like as I become buzzed, intoxicated, drunk? What are the "tells" of my progressions. Do I go through these progressions too frequentlly? I know not if this observational experience is objectively profound in any way, but to me is was quite interesing and it kept me occupied for my 14 hour shift; in between checking the ID's and escorting out the people too drunk for their own good of course. For the first time I was dead sober for the entire St. Patricks party, and I didn't even give up anything for Lent. Now Sunday the 15th, Nolan's birthday, thats a different story altogether...

February 15th, 2009

Greetings to all my alustrious viewers; and dare I say, readers? This page is my Diacron. It is a weekly personal update on the happenings of myself and my adventure into the realm of art. I will update this page as often as possible, so if my quest to make it as a functioning artist interests you, then please come to vist my Diacron as often as you like. Feast my reader, feast...